with us, bill press and ron christie who i know would never pull a gun on me if i were a census workerl assistant to dick cheney who does know something about firearms. >> ed, you had to go there, didn't you? >> we're just having fun, ron, you know that. >> of course. >> let's talk about this. i mean, ron, how irresponsible is it for someone to have a microphone and say, hey, i dare them to come to my door, they're not going to arrest me. i'm going to have a gun at the koor when they show up. >> i think it's stupid and irresponsible. you know, i read this clip and he said liberals are taking his comments out of context. i read the entire thing. it's in our constitution we have a census and these individuals, these temporary employees are coming. they're doing their constitutional responsibility and to even joke about bringing a weapon out when someone's coming to do their job is irresponsible. this person needs to grow up a little bit. >> bill press, what planet is cnn on, or any network keeping somebody on that advocates this kind of behavior? >> i don't know, but i have to say, ed, i

joining me now is former bush/cheney aide, republican strategist, ron christie. if we're playing slow pitch softball my man, i am serving you up the biggest fattest softball for you to hit out of the park. how can the republicans continue to mumble, stumble, fumble throughout life the way it's going? >> i think the republican party itself is very strong and we're very poised and positioned to do well in november. i will answer a question directly, ed. i am not happy about the leadership we have seen out of the republican national committee in the last 16 to 18 months. i'm not happy about it. not happy about the money spent, the gaffes by the chairman, about this west hollywood strip club thing. the leadership starts at the top and i think chairman, michael steele is on a very short leash, he has a very very narrow opportunity to show he can raise the money, he can be a strong leader for the party. otherwise, i think the clock in the back of his head in his office might be ticking. >> so you're not ready to throw him under the bus right now, you think michael stee

ron christie, republican strategist.mer mayor of san francisco and former speaker of the california state assembly. you're both attorneys. let's start in that light. here's justice stevens and what he said about president obama in "the washington post." quote, obama's a very competent president to make choices for the supreme court. stooefbs said perhaps the best he said since gerald ford. i think that's irony there. let' go to ron on this. it seems to me we have not had a tradition of using the filibuster. court appointments were made where the confirmation is people, low 50s. no one said that the opinion shigs has a right to veto the appointment by denying it through filibuster. what is your thinking on that state of play right now in terms of picking a nominee and getting them confirmed? >> i think that is right, chris. i think there's only two judicial nominations in the history of the united states blocked by the filibuster and both done by the democrats. first was in 1968 that was president john's nominee for the c

ron christy, i guess you think this isn't good for main street? >> i don't think so, michelle. creating a $50 billion slush fund for the administration to contribute as they see fit. the government is in the business of picking winners and losers and i'm concerned about the government demonizing certain parts of the industry. we're all connected, main street and wall street are connected together. i am worried about the ability of people to get credit and access to credit if the government has too many restrictions imposed upon people. >> ron, why do you say this is allowed to pick winners and losers? >> if you look at the slush fund, the government can decide they can want to nationalize or commercialize or decide that they'll let certain entities fail. i think the government should not be in the business of picking winners and losers and keith can laugh -- >> keith, i hear you laughing. >> the government already has an authority anyway. they did that with president bush and when hank paulson went together and forced congress to approve a $7 billion bailout for wall street. th